AR Pistol Question

Maybe just a coincidence (see other thread on braces)--but all of a sudden my inbox has been receiving lots of advertisements for heavily discounted AR pistols. Some of those are being sold without any attachments to the rear of the receiver.
 
People commit armed robberies with toy guns on a fairly regular basis.
Click to expand...

OK. I won't argue with that.

It remains a fact that I DOUBT he had ill intent. ( "I Doubt" is the fact)

He may well have a problem with violating carry law unless he was carrying a fishing pole.

I'm not going to imagine him another "Sandy Hook Killer" without some probable cause. I'm keeping my blood pressure under control.

I CAN understand the OP looking for info and being concerned. (Child in school)

Its not unusual for me to transport a gun project. IMO, amongst my gun circle, its good to consolidate the collection of tools and spares at one location. Your house,my house,doesn't matter. The roll pin punches,fixtures,barrel nut wrenches, vise jaws, headspace gauges,etc. All collocated.
I own many of the tools and parts but they are in a toolbox at someone elses house. I have a motor vehicle and I transport discretely.

I can relate enough that I don't project "mass murderer" on some indiscrete dilrod walking his AR project someplace. We can walk to our local gunsmith.

A few years back the fad was "Open Carry Activists' shopping for Oreos at Walmart carrying AK;s and AR's,or going to breakfast at the local cafe armed with long guns or just taking a road walk or to Little League Games.
These efforts had quite a bit of support here on TFL. (Not Mine)

While I could see the point of "normalizing" carry, I do not support stirring the citizens to call for more laws. IMO,low key is good.

There may be more to this story, but with what we have,,, I'd say the guy needs a lecture from the Cops ...."tuneup" If he checks out "not crazy" give him his AR back. "Go,and sin no more"
 
Last edited:
Leaving out the arguments of carry etc--anything involving firearms in the public is always going to be volatile--especially when it involves schools and other places of public gatherings in urban areas.

You can even be "swatted" just by mentioning firearms in public in a way that can be misinterpreted as a threat (easy to do when the listener rearranges and inserts a few words they thought you said)--like using the word "bomb" at an airport. It has happened to me, even when I had no firearms at all in my possession or at my residence. When 7 officers stake your home home out and one of them has a 40 semi-auto pointing directly between your eyes mere inches away from your head while you watch his finger nervously twitch on the trigger--you'll learn how easy it is to get yourself tagged by just a little creative interpretation by an ignorant/anxious public.
 
According to the OP, this time, the media called it a rifle.
Click to expand...

I read the media called it a pistol
Click to expand...

The original reports in the media referred to the police FB page in calling it a rifle. I (OP) referred to it as a pistol because of the lack of a buttstock. Some here seem to be leaning towards classifying it as an AOW. I'm not well versed enough in the intricacies of the definitions to be a mediator.

The only follow up we have had was my daughter, the little girl's mother, calling the lieutenant in charge of the case. He told my daughter that they apprehended the guy on the other side of the school than where he was originally seen, going in a direction away from the school in a residential neighborhood. He has been uncooperative, and the lieutenant implied that mental illness was involved. They have as yet not determined who owns the gun or how this guy acquired it. So it doesn't look like any of our questions, about either hardware or intent, are likely to be answered anytime soon.

I do appreciate the input I got here. I knew y'all would help me out.
 
RickB.... I'd say the only way it's likely a pistol, is if the lower receiver is marked as such, or it's chambered for a pistol cartridge.
Click to expand...
Neither of which is used in the definition of a "pistol".

I transfer hundreds of AR pistols every year.....not a one in the last ten years has had the lower receiver marked "pistol". If it did it would be meaningless.

Similarly, a pistol can be any caliber as can a rifle.
 
"If the receiver built into a carbine or rifle first, it must always remain part of a rifle and cannot ever be used to build a pistol."

So, the pictured gun, if it was a stocked rifle, could now be considered to have been illegally converted to a pistol, merely by removing the buffer tube, but is removing a defective part a "conversion"?
Lots and lots of possibilities, and really hard to tell from the one pic.
 
if it was a stocked rifle, could now be considered to have been illegally converted to a pistol, merely by removing the buffer tube, but is removing a defective part a "conversion"?
Click to expand...

Repairs are not conversions, malfunctions are not conversions, and disassembly, full or partial, does not change the legal classification of the assembled firearm.

Alterations can be a different matter. This is where you get into the "made or remade" language, and, possibly into violation of the law.
 
And, again, we don't know the actual status of the pictured gun.
It would be interesting to know how the agency in possession of it, determined its status as rifle or pistol.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit to find it identified as a pistol, to further the current notion that "assault pistols" are especially dangerous and scary.
 
I know we often take trips into the weeds

Within the context of the OP, What difference does it make whether its a pistol,rifle,or something else?

At least 9 posts.

Its incomplete. Who cares?

Maybe it had a 7 in bbl and a brace and he's trying to stay out of trouble so he got a 16 in bbl ,took off the brace and pistol buffer and is making a non-NFA Carbine out of it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top